No Right To Judge
by Kat-of-the-Streets
Summary: Tom returns from America and Mary and he realize that there might be more to their relationship than friendship. Also takes a look at the relationship between Tom and Robert with a very small bit of Robert/Cora mixed into it.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I hope you like this story and that I am not stepping on too many toes with this. I know that not everyone likes Tom/Mary stories, but I hope that some of you will be able to enjoy this. It does not only focus on the relationship between Mary and Tom but also on the relationship between Robert and Tom.

This is the first chapter, there are a few more to come.

Please let me know what you think!

Kat

* * *

He has been waiting for his son-in-law for almost an hour now. The boy returned from Boston two days ago and he is only staying for four weeks and there are so many things he wants to show him and talk to him about.

He is also a little worried that Tom is sick. Sybbie told him that her father almost constantly threw up on the ship, Tom of course did not mention that, but he did look a bit peaky. So he decides to check on him. If Tom really is sick, they should get Dr. Clarkson to examine him.

He knocks on Tom's door and hears a grunt in reply and so he opens the door and what he sees makes his heart stop beating and his head turn as read as a tomato.

"Oh dear God, excuse me," he says and shuts the door again.

He needs to clear his head and as it is obvious that Tom won't be joining him any time soon, he decides to take a walk. Before he has even left the house, he literally runs into his wife who looks slightly taken aback and says an indignant "Robert".

"I am sorry. I was just, I don't know what I was." He feels his wife scrutinize him and feels her take his arm and stir him outside. Once they are out of earshot she turns to him and asks

"What is it?"

He considers not telling her, it would shock her, but then again, this concerns their son-in-law and one of their daughters, so she really has a right know.

"I just wanted to get Tom, see whether he was alright. We wanted to leave an hour ago but he never came downstairs and because Sybbie said that he had been sick on the ship, I thought that he might not have been feeling well. I knocked on his door and heard a grunt and then I opened the door because I thought that he was sick and still in bed. And he was in bed. But not by himself. Mary was there with him and they were not sleeping. Or talking." All this has just tumbled out of his mouth and he is infinitely glad that Cora was the first person he ran into because she is the only person he can talk to like that.

"That is unexpected," his wife says. "Although understandable." He turns to her in disbelieve but listens to her explain why she thinks that it is understandable. And he can't help but agree with her. At the end of their long conversations he tells her that he won't ask either Tom or Mary any questions, that he will pretend that he hasn't seen anything and Cora agrees with him.

"That is a very good plan," she says.

However, he has to throw that very good plan overboard when Tom approaches him after lunch and asks for 'a word'.

"About what you saw," Tom starts but he cuts him off.

"Tom, please don't. I don't want to hear it." But Tom shakes his head.

"I just wanted to apologize. I should not have done that. I should have, I don't know what I should have." Tom looks utterly helpless and he wants to tell him to never mention it again, because he really does not want to think about his daughter doing what she was obviously doing, but then again, Mary is 34 years old and Tom a decent man. A decent man who feels incredibly guilty now.

"Tom. Don't apologize to me. Mary is 34 years old. She knows what she is doing. She has been married, she has a son. And although I still want to protect her whenever possible, this is not an area in which I should interfere. Not anymore. If she was nineteen or twenty, I'd throw you out of this house, but not now."

Tom looks at him questioningly and his hopes of being done with talking about this topic vanish into thin air and he takes a deep breath before continuing to speak.

"Tom, you've lived in my house long enough for me not to be able to pretend that I didn't know how important certain things are." Tom can't help but chuckle and he knows that he is turning bright read but he still continues.

"I can't ask you to live like a monk and I can't ask Mary to live like a nun although I would like both of you to do exactly that until you were married again. Maybe I am old fashioned, but I do believe that certain things should only be done within a marriage. But I have been very happily married for 35 years now and that is nothing that can be said for either you or Mary. You have both suffered a kind of loss the pain of which I can only dimly imagine. And I know that you need to deal with that somehow and neither Cora nor I have any right to interfere."

"So Cora knows."

He nods and Tom grins at him. "I am not surprised."

"Neither Cora nor I have any right to judge Mary or you. And we don't." Tom nods at that and stares into the distance.

"There is just one thing Tom. I am sure that both Mary and you know how to be careful, but should Mary become pregnant despite that, promise me to marry her. And to do your best to make her happy."

Tom nods and says "Of course."

They keep walking in silence for a while until Tom turns to him.

"So you think we could be happy?"

"What?" He has no idea what Tom is talking about.

"So you think that Mary and I could be happy."

He wonders what to say because this is something he hasn't talked to Cora about, it is something he hasn't even considered and he doesn't know what to think about it.

"Why do you ask?"

Tom swallows and then looks at him.

"It is something I have been thinking about."

"Why? Have you fallen in love with her?" It is something he can't imagine. Tom can't have fallen for Mary, it does not make any sense.

"No. I haven't fallen in love with her. Not the way I fell in love with Sybil. That was head-over-heels; it made me unable to think of anything else for years."

"Then why did you ask?"

"There was a woman in America. Caitlin. I thought I had fallen in love with her. She was very nice, she liked Sybbie, she had a good head on her shoulders, she was beautiful. And I am sure she liked me very much. I asked her to come here with me, I offered to pay, I can afford it, but she didn't understand. I told her that Downton was a part of me, that it would always be a part of me because Sybil would always be a part of me. Caitlin never asked me to forget about Sybil, but she did not understand that I would always love Sybil, that a part of my heart would always belong to her."

"And that makes it difficult for you to find someone."

"It makes it almost impossible. And Mary feels the same. We've been through the same, almost exactly the same. She will always love Matthew as I will always love Sybil. But that does not have to mean that we can never love anyone else. It will just be a lot harder than the first time around. But not all happy marriages begin with the husband and wife falling head-over-heels for each other."

He knows that Tom is saying or rather what he is asking.

"No. Certainly not."

"How did you make it work?"

He feels very uncomfortable talking to Tom about this. For a moment he thinks that it is none of Tom's business, but Sybil and possibly Mary and Edith probably already told him quite a lot and Tom is a member of the family.

"We wanted it to work and put in the effort. We spent time together, just the two of us, even it was very uncomfortable at first because we didn't really know what to do with each other. But we found out we had a lot of things in common and we built on that. And at some point I just realized that I loved her. Cora had become an integral part of my life without me even realizing it."

He is very thankful to Tom for looking the other way now. He does not want the boy to see the emotions on his face. He feels so embarrassed.

"Mary and I have a lot in common."

"You live on different continents." He hopes Tom does not plan on taking Mary to America with him.

"Only if Sybbie and I return to Boston."

"Are you thinking about not returning?" He doesn't even dare to hope for that.

"Yes. Sybbie does not feel at home in Boston. She kept asking about when we would return home. She is so young and in three quarters of a year she did not get used to a new home. And she was so happy when I told her we'd come here. She told everyone she met that we were finally going home and that she'd finally be with Donk and Granny again. It was embarrassing. Or it would have been if she hadn't been so cute. And there is nothing that keeps me in Boston. But a lot that would keep me here."

"Like Mary."

"Yes. But not only her. I've missed everyone, even your mother."

This makes him laugh and he wonders if he should tell him that his mother missed him too.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews, especially to the guests whom I couldn't thank in a PM. I am really thankful for all the support, it means a lot to me!

Kat

* * *

Mary

"Was it bad?" She is afraid. Afraid that she has ruined everything for Tom. It was her after all who initiated it. They were the last downstairs and she asked Tom if he had found someone in Boston and he told her the story of Caitlin and somehow and she has no idea how, they ended up talking about how much they miss being physically close to someone and then she said that she knew of a friend who sometimes went to bed with a man she knew quite well and Tom had understood her and said no, but she had sat down next to him regardless and then they kissed and went to his room and when they woke up in the morning, she initiated it again and her father caught them.

"No. No. Not for me. I think your father was very embarrassed." Maybe her father was too embarrassed to tell Tom what he thought of him.

"What did he say?"

"That he had no right to judge us. He said he'd prefer us to live like a monk and a nun until we were married again, but that he would not interfere."

"He must have talked to Mama first. Those are Mama's words, not his." She is sure about that. She is sure that her father would have hit Tom if her mother hadn't put words into his mouth.

"Even so, he seemed to believe it." It makes her smile. Her mother has a way of making her father think what she thinks and she is sure it is a sign of their deep love for one another that this works. And she is thankful to her mother for more often than not using this ability to her daughters' advantage.

"He made me promise that I would marry you and try to make you happy, should you become pregnant." For some reason this makes her heart beat a little faster.

"What did you say?"

"I asked him whether he thought that we could make each other happy. He was very vague about it but told me that he and your mother are so happy because they wanted to make it work." Tom has moved closer to her now, they both have a hand on the back of the sofa and their hands are almost touching.

"That was his way of saying yes. That he thinks that we could make each other happy if we wanted to do so."

Tom has put his hand on hers now.

"Mary, I," but she shakes her head and makes him stop.

"I once said to Matthew that he and I carried more luggage than the porters at King's Cross. And that is even truer for the two of us."

"What did Matthew say?"

"He asked me to marry him. But please Tom, don't ask. Please." She knows she is begging but she can see in Tom's face that he is not about to give up.

"Why not?"

"Because I would be tempted to say yes. It would be the easy way out, wouldn't it? We like each other very much, maybe we even love each other, but certainly not the way that you loved Sybil and that I loved Matthew. But it wouldn't matter because we know what the other has been through. We wouldn't have to explain a lot. And it would give Sybbie a mother and George a father."

"Mary, those are arguments in favor of us getting married."

"What if I want to be in love again?"

"Do you think you'll ever fall in love again the way you fell in love with Matthew?" She shakes her head because she knows it won't happen again. It can't happen again because Matthew will always be in the back of her mind. She will never be able to forget him, she does not want to forget him.

"No."

"Then why not give us a chance?" Indeed, why should she not give herself and Tom a chance at some sort of happiness? They do love each other in a way.

"Because I absolutely do not want to divorce."

"Neither do I."

"And because Sybil was my sister." Tom nods in understanding and then smiles at her.

"You do know that she'd laugh herself silly at an ending like this, don't you? It would make her very happy if we made each other happy. She loved you with all her heart. She was over the moon when you wrote to her about your engagement to Matthew. 'She'll be happy. She will finally be happy. And she deserves it so much.' That's what Sybil said." It drives tears into her eyes and it makes her miss her little sister even more than she usually misses her.

"But would we be happy? Could this really work?"

"How will we ever know if we don't try?" It makes her laugh. She hasn't laughed in a very long time. Tony and Charles made her laugh on occasion, but it always felt wrong. It doesn't feel wrong to laugh with Tom.

"Alright then."

She is scared by her own boldness. She knows she has just thrown every hope of ever falling in love head-over-heels to the winds, she knows that should she ever meet another man who will capture her heart the way Matthew did, she will be married to someone else. She briefly considers telling Tom that it was mistake but when she looks at him and sees the smile on his face, she realizes how much she missed Tom and somewhere deep down something stirs inside of her that tells her that she may not just have missed her best friend.

She also needs a father for George. Her father is doing his very best at doing for George what a father would do, he loves the little boy and George loves his grandfather, but that is just it, George has a grandfather, a wonderful loving, caring grandfather, but not a father. Her son also needs to see that marriage is a good thing. Of course her parents are a wonderful example for a loving marriage and she knows how important it is to grow up with parents who love each other. She would have married Richard Carlisle if it had not been for her wish to have what her parents have, a wish that has been deeply engrained in her for two decades now.

Her parents got married because it was convenient and an easy way out. They both fulfilled their parents' wishes rather quickly after only one season, even if her grandmother wasn't happy about getting an American daughter-in-law, they both decided on someone they knew they'd never hate. And she could never hate Tom, she loves him, even if the love she feels for Tom is very different from the love she thinks she ought to feel for the man she married. But then again, she knows that she will never love like that again in any case. So she takes Tom's hand again, leans forward and kisses him on the lips, something that makes him smile.

* * *

AN: I really hope I didn't disappoint anyone with this chapter. Several of you asked for a flashback of how Mary and Tom ended up in bed together and I hope this was explanation enough. I thought about writing their actual conversation, but somehow that wouldn't have really fit this story, although I may write it and post it as a companion piece once this story is complete.


	3. Chapter 3

AN at the bottom this time :)

* * *

Tom

He has been this afraid only once in his life before and that was when Sybil could hardly breathe anymore, shortly before she died. He cannot get the pictures out of his head. It is different now of course. Mary insisted on the baby being born in the hospital, she insisted on Dr. Clarkson and Isobel taking care of her. "They did it perfectly the last time," she said and then looked at him.

"Don't you dare drive to the Abbey yourself afterwards. Don't you dare."

He promised he wouldn't drive the day their child was born or the day after and she promised him not to die. But the difference between their promises was that he has control over keeping his and Mary has no control over keeping hers. He is sure he couldn't stand it again. If Mary died too, just like Sybil, he'd go utterly mad.

Mary and he got married about 18 months ago, at the same registrar's office that Rose and Atticus got married. Theirs was a very small wedding, only Mary's parents, her aunt, her granny, Edith, and Isobel and of course Marigold, George and Sybbie had been present. He invited his brother and mother of course, but they both told him that he was making a mistake and that they did not want to witness it. It rained cats and dogs on their wedding day and they had a family dinner at Grantham House but that was all. Mary did not wear a wedding dress, but it somehow fit their situation. They went on a wedding journey to New York, to visit Rose and Atticus and Mary's other grandmother and her uncle and they took George and Sybbie with them, because they did not need a real wedding journey, they weren't really in love and they knew how to do their duty although it has always been much more than a duty to them and that was that.

They both enjoyed their wedding journey tremendously, all parts of it. When they came back home, they briefly discussed having another child, but they both were reluctant to go that far. Neither one of them wanted a child not conceived out of true romantic love.

About six months after their wedding, Robert and Cora told them to go away for a week and leave their children with them. He knew what Robert wanted them to do, he wanted them to have some time alone, to be together, just the two of them. Mary and he had at that point put quite a lot of effort into their marriage, but somehow they had not taken that last step, they hadn't completely opened their hearts to each other. He enjoyed his time alone with Mary and he knows that she enjoyed it too, but his feelings for Mary did not change until they returned home.

Sybbie came running to them, screaming "Daddy, Mummy" on the top of her lungs and Mary caught her, lifted her up and gave her a kiss on the cheek. In that moment he realized that Mary really had turned into Sybbie's mother and he later told her how thankful he was to her.

"Tom, Sybbie is my sister's daughter. Being there for her is the least I can do. And even if I let her call me 'Mummy', I won't ever let her forget about Sybil. Just as you can be George's father without ever letting him forget about Matthew." It made him smile at her and she smiled back at him and a wave of happiness flooded through him. Although he only realized what it was a few weeks later.

He tried to teach George what he knew about cricket although he thought that would have been more of a job for Robert, but with all the talk about the upcoming cricket match, the boy had become impatient and Robert didn't have the time. So he showed George how to hold the bat and when George tried his first hit, he let go off the bat and it flew away, right into his shins. The look of utter astonishment on the little boy's face made him laugh and he grabbed the boy and tossed him into the air. Mary had watched the whole scene and seemed very shocked at him tossing her son into the air and he looked at her and asked "What?" Mary shook her head and then said

"You are silly. And I love you." He knew she only realized what she said after she had already said it but he also knew that she did not regret it. So he carried their son over to where she was standing, gave her a kiss on the lips and said "I love you too." He meant it and he knew that Mary knew he meant it.

They stopped following the advice of Marie Stopes that day and now he is sitting in the Downton library, waiting for his wife to give birth at the hospital and he is as scared as hell. Robert is sitting next to him and trying to comfort him but to no avail. He doesn't even hear what his father-in-law is saying.

At some point the phone rings and Robert goes to answer it. Tom can't read the expression on Robert's face but at least he is able to will himself to listen to him.

"That was Isobel. It's over. The baby is fine and so is Mary."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" he asks. He doesn't care, they already have a boy and a girl but he needs to say something.

"I forgot to ask," Robert says and laughs. "Let's go Tom. Lynch is outside in the car, waiting for us."

He walks into the hospital in a daze, trying to get the pictures of Sybil dying out of his head. He needs to focus on this new child, not on his dead first wife. It would be unfair to both the child and Mary but he is sure that Mary would understand.

He walks into Mary's room and sees her sitting upright on a hospital bed, holding their child, smiling at him and looking perfectly healthy and happy.

"Hello darling. Come and meet your son," she says and the picture of Sybil dying vanishes from his mind. He walks over to Mary and looks at their son for the first time.

* * *

AN: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews on this story. I am really happy about the feedback that I get.

Also, thank you so much to those of you who suggested that there should be people to make Tom and/or Mary doubt their decision to get married to each other. Those ideas make my head explode in the best possible way!

This story is not a story about them being tempted by someone else however, I think those ideas would not fit the story I am trying to tell here. BUT I am very thankful for all ideas and I might use them in a future story :)

So again, thank you all so very much for the many, many reviews and please let me know what you think about this chapter!

Kat


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Thank you for all the reviews! This is the second to last chapter and the shortst one. But I promise that the last chapter will be much longer than this one!

Please let me know what you think about this chapter!

Kat

* * *

Cora

She watches Mary and Tom for a moment and then turns away, looking for Robert. She knows that Robert accompanied Tom to the hospital, Mary asked him to do it to make sure that Tom would not drive himself. Robert would have preferred to wait at the hospital and she would have preferred to have him there as well. The birth was easy enough and Mary threw her out of the room only once, claiming that her experiences of given birth were so far in the past she could in no way be of help as she probably did not remember giving birth and that moreover, American women knew nothing about how to give birth the proper way in any case. It had made her shake her head and chuckle, she herself threw a water jug full of water in the general direction of her own mother and Rosamund when she gave birth to Mary, but when she sat in the waiting room after Mary asked her to leave the room, she felt lonely and longed for Robert's company. But she understood Mary's reasoning in wanting her father to keep a very close eye on Tom to make sure he really wouldn't drive and she also knew that Mary did not want Tom at the hospital because she was afraid that he was going to hear her scream.

When she finally finds Robert she smiles at him and he smiles back at her.

"So we have a fourth grandchild," he says, gets up and holds out his hands to her. She takes them and he kisses her on the lips.

"It's a boy. Isobel told me you didn't ask."

"No. I was too excited and too relieved." Robert puts his arms around her now.

"It is scary, isn't it?" she asks and he chuckles.

"Imagine what I went through when you brought our girls into the world."

She doesn't know what to say so she just keeps holding onto him.

"Do you know our grandson's name?" She wonders for a moment if she should answer this question. She knows the name but she wonders if it wouldn't be better if Mary and Tom told Robert themselves.

About four or five weeks ago, Mary came into her bedroom during the afternoon when she knew she'd be by herself. They talked about Mary being afraid of losing Tom the way she lost Matthew and she did her best to calm her daughter and promised her that she would tell Robert to keep a very close eye on Tom. Mary had already been on her way out of the room when she turned around, looking as if she wasn't sure whether to ask what she wanted to ask.

"Go ahead Mary," she encouraged her daughter. "I am your mother. You can ask me anything."

"What would Papa and you have named a boy?" The question took her aback and Mary must have noticed this.

"We have a name for a girl. But for the life of us, we can't come up with a good name for a boy. I suggested Patrick, I told Tom it would fit as it was Grandpapa's name, but Tom thinks it sounds too Irish. He said the child would have to live with having an Irish chauffeur for a father for its whole life and that we should not make that even more difficult. And he is probably right." She understood Tom's reasoning and appreciated Mary's sentiment. Still, for a moment she thought about telling Mary that she and Robert never decided on a boy's name because it would feel like a loss, but then she thought that there wasn't anything left to lose in that regard.

"Nicholas," she said and saw the light in her daughter's eyes.

"Nicholas Robert, I suppose," Mary said and all she could do was nod.

"Mama, would you mind if we stole the name?"

"No, I wouldn't. And I think it would make your father happy." She had said without thinking about but knew instinctively that this would make Robert happy.

"Good," Mary had said and then left. She had wondered then, if Mary and Tom would really name a child after Robert, but Mary loves her father very much and the relationship between Robert and Tom has evolved into something akin to a father-son relationship.

"Cora?" Robert calls her back to the present.

"I think they should tell you the name themselves. But you will like it."

"If you say so," he says and then takes her hand and almost pulls her with him to meet his new grandson.

* * *

P.S.: I know I've used the name before, I stole it from myself so to speak :)


	5. Chapter 5

AN: Thank you again for all the lovely reviews!

This is the last chapter and I hope that you like it.

Kat

* * *

Tom

"So you are sure about naming your first-born son after my father and not after yourself?" Mary has asked this question a hundred times already and if he wasn't so blissfully happy, he'd tell that it was going on his nerves.

"Yes, Mary, I am. And what kind of a name is 'Tom'? I am not even named Thomas, I am just Tom. It sounds nice for a simple man but not for the brother of the future Earl of Grantham."

"If Sybil heard you," Mary says and he rolls his eyes in his head.

"If Sybil heard me, the boy's first name would be Tom. I know. But you are not Sybil." Mary shakes her head. At the very beginning of their marriage Mary once asked him if he thought her a good replacement for Sybil and he has tried to convince her that she is not replacement at all ever since that day. He thought that he had been successful a while ago, but maybe the stress of the birth was just too much for Mary.

"Mary, we decided on the name weeks ago. You like it and so do I. I don't mind honoring your father, I owe him quite a lot."

"We owe you quite a lot too," Mary says, but she smiles and he is sure that she is now in a much better mood.

"Maybe," he says because he isn't quite sure. He is the father of a girl and he'd want to hit any man who even considered marrying his daughter and he sometimes wonders how Robert can have such an easy-going relationship with him. But then again, Mary is not a little girl.

At that moment Robert and Cora walk into the room, or rather Robert pulls Cora with him who looks a little amused by her husband's eagerness to meet his grandson.

"I tried to keep him out of here for a while. I really did," Cora says, looking at Mary.

"It's alright Mama. I am glad the little one has a grandfather who is eager to meet him." Robert's face lights up at this comment and he briefly wonders if he will feel like that in 20 years' time when one of his children has turned him into a grandfather.

Mary places the baby in her father's arms and he looks at the little boy with just as much love as he looks at his other three grandchildren.

"So, are you going to reveal the big secret that is my grandson's name?" Tom has to grin about this. Cora seems to have told Robert that she already knows the name and it seems to bother Robert a little. He feels Mary squeeze his hand and then nods at her. They decided that he should tell Robert what they named their son and that they named him after him.

"We've named him Nicholas Robert," he says and looks at his father-in-law who looks astonished and then begins to smile and turns to Cora.

"You told them."

"Mary asked," Cora says and Robert then turns to him and Mary again.

"Thank you. I feel quite honored." Mary nods and he marvels at Mary and Robert's ability to communicate about their feelings without saying anything at all. He can see that Robert is very touched and he knows that Mary thinks that her father deserves this, but neither one of them says a word and yet he is sure that they know what the other is feeling. Maybe it is that way because they are quite alike in their inability to talk about their feelings.

They are told a little while later that visiting hours are over and he and Robert and Cora return to Downton where not surprisingly, they have family dinner that is attended by the dowager. Once Cora, Edith and Lady Grantham have left the dining room after dinner, Robert turns to him.

"Tom, I don't know what to say."

"About the name? I am sorry if it bothers you. We thought you and Cora wouldn't mind."

"It doesn't bother me Tom. I meant what I said. I feel honored. I wouldn't have expected you to name a son after me. Especially not your first son." He wonders how much to say. He knows that Robert hates talking about feelings.

"Mary and I both think that you deserve it. We couldn't find a good name for a boy and so Mary asked Cora what the two of you would have named a boy and she said that you wouldn't mind if we used that name and we thought that," Robert puts a hand on his shoulder and thus causes him to stop speaking.

"My dear boy, you don't need to say anything else. I understand and it makes me very happy." He knows that is all that Robert is going to say on the matter, but he knows what it means. It means that Robert has fully accepted him not only as a member of the family but as an equal to him.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me. You are a very good father of two of my grandchildren and to all intents and purposes you are also the loving father of my heir. I should be thanking you."

He doesn't know what to say but somehow he knows that Robert doesn't need him to say anything. So he just nods and then asks "Should we join the ladies?"

"Yes," Robert says and they both get up. When they walk to the dining room, Robert puts a hand on his shoulder again and squeezes it slightly. He saw him do that with Matthew a few times and it makes him smile.

As soon as he and Robert have walked through to the drawing room, he is attacked with questions by Mary's grandmother, although to his astonishment those are not questions about Mary or the baby but about Isobel and Dr. Clarkson.

"Would you say that they are on the right path?" she asks and he is no idea what she is referring to, although both Cora and Robert are rolling their eyes at this.

"The right path to what?"

"The right path to Jerusalem. Matrimony of course."

"I don't know. But Mary thinks it would make sense." Mary actually is quite concerned about Isobel, she thinks that 'the whole ugly business with Dickie Merton's misbehaved sons hurt her more than she cares to admit'.

"Well, that is at least one other person in this family who thinks so. Get out your diaries," she says to the room at large then. "We'll have a family luncheon in two weeks. I will invite Dr. Clarkson as well and then we push them towards each other. And Tom, no excuses. Mary can't say she is tired. And you can't say that you have business on the other side of the estate. I want the whole family there." After that speech, Mary's grandmother laughs her signature laugh and then begins to question the height of the hemline of the skirt that Cora was wearing earlier that day.

Robert again rolls his eyes and the whispers to him "I wish she stopped that. I liked the skirt."

"I doubt that Cora will change the way she dresses because of her mother-in-law. It might make her wear even shorter skirts in the future." Robert gives a hearty laugh at this and but then looks at him seriously.

"I don't criticize you as much as my mother criticizes Cora, do I?"

"No," he says and it is not a lie.

"Good," Robert replies and then goes on "Isobel is still at the hospital. If you asked her very nicely, I am sure she'd let you back inside."

"I promised Mary I wouldn't drive. And your mother will need Lynch."

"But Mary never asked Edith not to drive. And I am sure she wouldn't mind being hooked out of fight between Cora and my mother."

Edith indeed looks as if she'd rather be anywhere else then sitting between her mother and grandmother who are fighting about hemlines and decency.

Ten minutes later, he sits next to Edith, who really has turned into a very good driver, and lets her take him to the hospital, to Mary and Nicholas, back to blissful happiness.


End file.
